Gumpel was born in
Hannover,
Germany, as a member of the
House of Hohenzollern, although he later changed his last name. Under the National-Socialist regime, he and several members of his family were threatened by
Nazis because of their anti-Nazi views, and he had to flee from Germany twice, first to France and then to the Netherlands, where during the
war he went underground and helped
Jews to flee. Gumpel was involved in the beatification of
Catherine McAuley.
Angela Bolster, an Irish nun and McAuley expert, was appointed in 1979 as one of the first women to be a vice-
postulator as Vatican rules were relaxed to allow this to happen. In later times, Gumpel expressed regret that well known Catholic personalities and groups questioned the wisdom of promoting the cause of
Pope Pius XII's beatification. For different reasons, Jewish groups too were opposed to the pope's beatification. Gumpel died in Rome on 12 October 2022, at the age of 98. ==See also==